Paul Galanti

Paul Galanti was an American Vietnam War veteran and prisoner-of-war who later served as Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services as a Republican.

Biography
Paul Galanti grew up in a US Army family, and he graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1957 and the US Naval Academy in 1962. He went on to serve in the US Navy's aviation wing during the Vietnam War, and he flew 97 combat missions before being shot down and captured on 17 June 1966; his wife Phyllis Galanti became a POW activist back in the United States. The North Vietnamese released him on 12 February 1973, and he was medically retired from the Navy in 1983. He went on to serve as Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, and he was the Virginia campaign manager for the Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2004.